


baby let's take the long way home

by joppers



Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: Diners, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Pining, Road Trips, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-11-07 21:44:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17968598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joppers/pseuds/joppers
Summary: “I’m sorry our flight is what?”“Cancelled, ma’am. There’s heavy fog- the plane can’t safely take off,” the attendant tells her once more, and Penelope blinks. Then blinks again.or, Penelope and Schneider take a road trip.





	1. you're stuck in my head (stuck on my heart)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends! So I've been on the Penelope/Schneider train since season one, but season three really hit home how much I love them, so- obviously it's time to write some fic! Set in the near-distant future, so not technically AU but also not strictly canon. I'm not sure how many chapters just yet, but the whole concept is planned out in gross detail, if you can't tell from the fun tags I've preemptively used! Please let me know what you think, I've never written this ship before and am a little nervous. Story title is from Let's Get Lost by Carly Rae Jepsen, while the chapter title is from Run Away With Me by her!

She hadn’t cried.

At least, not where Elena had been able to see. That’s what had mattered- if she’d teared up once her daughter was out of sight, well. That was just no one’s business but hers.

And Schneider’s. Since he’d come with her to drop Elena off- had gotten their plane tickets, refusing to let her refuse, had made sure Alex and her mother would be okay for the two days they’d be gone, and talked Elena away from an anxiety attack during takeoff. He’d been- well, he’d been the best support Penelope ever could have asked for, which shouldn’t still surprise her, and yet it does.

“She’s gonna be okay, Pen,” his voice is soft, and he hangs his arm between them in a way that’s casual, but lets her know he’s there. She sniffles, and reaches for his hand- her fingers squeeze tightly, but he responds in kind, letting her nearly break his fingers as she exhales sharply.

“It’s just so far,” she whispers, then shakes her head. “I mean- it’s still the West Coast. It’s less than a day if I had to drive here for an emergency. It’s an hour and a half flight. But it’s still so _far._ ”

Schneider tugs her closer, hand slipping from hers briefly to wrap his arm around her, and his opposite hand twining their fingers back together. She presses her cheek to his chest, the flannel of the plaid shirt he has on soft against her skin. He’d insisted on coordinating ones for all three of them- because apparently being in the state of Washington meant they had to look like a trio of lumberjacks. But Elena had loved it, positively beaming while picking them out with Schneider online, and Penelope hadn’t been able to leave them hanging.

So here they are, Schneider in a green and black shirt and her in a black and navy one. Watching as Elena disappears into the crowd of students, already deep in conversation with her new roommate Olivia. Penelope takes another breath, nose filling with the scent of Schneider’s cologne and the pine trees around them.

“You ready to head to the airport?” he asks lightly, and Penelope shakes her head, eyes finding Elena’s familiar bun bobbing in the crowd, getting smaller by the second.

“Just a few more minutes.”

* * *

 

“I’m sorry our flight is what?”

“Cancelled, ma’am. There’s heavy fog- the plane can’t safely take off,” the attendant tells her once more, and Penelope blinks. Then blinks again.

“So we’re just stuck here?!”

“Until the fog lifts there’s not much we can do, I’m afraid,” the woman continues, and Schneider steps up, laying his hands gently on Penelope’s shoulders to hold her back. He feels her square them under his palms, and realizing holding her back was like trying to hold onto an unmovable force, so he lets go, and watches a flicker of fear appear in the attendant’s eyes as Penelope opens her mouth.

By the time they leave the counter, Penelope has four hotel vouchers, a slip for a car rental at no charge, and vouchers for coffee and food from one of the places within the airport. Schneider raises an eyebrow, letting out a low whistle.

“I don’t know if I’m terrified or turned on,” he says honestly, and Penelope looks over her shoulder at him, a smirk playing around her lips.

“If it’s not at least a little bit of both, I did something wrong,” she replies, tossing her hair as she leads him through the airport to the car rental. Schneider watches her, following, warmth pooling in his chest as his lips curl upwards.

He watches her finagle a slightly-battered SVU crossover ( _for Elena_ , she tells him, a soft look in her eyes) from the young man behind the car rental counter- he’s putty in Penelope’s more-than-capable hands, hands shaking a little as he gives her the keys. A self-satisfied smirk curves her lips, and Schneider sends the kid a sympathetic smile before following Penelope towards the food court.

“Okay. I need caffeine for this road trip,” she says, scanning the vouchers and tugging out the Starbucks one.

“I’ve never been on a road trip,” Schneider tells her as they get in line, and Penelope whips her head, curls flying in her face as she looks up at him.

“You’ve never taken a road trip before?” her voice is incredulous, and Schneider shrugs self-consciously.

“Kinda hard to find an excuse to road trip when your father has a private jet,” he answers, wincing at his own words as he says them, cheeks flushing a bright pink in embarrassment. Something in Penelope’s face changes; softens, just a little. “And road trips and booze don’t exactly go hand in hand, you know.”

He doesn’t look at her when he says the last part, perusing the menu as though he doesn’t know exactly what he’s going to order already. There’s a few heartbeats of silence, and then Penelope’s fingers are warm and strong around his, holding tightly. Schneider doesn’t look at her- he can’t, not without something fracturing in his chest- but he squeezes her fingers.

Penelope doesn’t drop them even as they inch closer to the counter, and the warmth moves from his cheeks to settle in his chest.

* * *

 

“This is an insane amount of junk food, Pen.”

Schneider looks at the mess of food piled on the center console- candy and cookies and chips, along with bottles of soda in the drink holders and a handful of water bottles in the backseat. Penelope shrugs, settling more comfortably into the driver’s seat and adjusting the mirrors.

“I’m giving you the full road trip experience,” she replies, meeting his gaze and smiling. “That includes junk food, and this 90s jams CD I found in the gift shop.”

“All this, for me?” a look she can’t quite read crosses his face, and she cocks her head, studying him. He shoves his glasses up his nose with a finger, and her eyes follow the movement, catching on the bits of silver flecking his beard, up to the silver-gray edges of his sideburns. She swallows, mouth suddenly dry, and immediately turns her attention to working the radio before he can catch her staring.

“Well, yeah, dummy. What are best friends for?”

For just a moment, the words feel like they aren’t enough; like they aren’t deep enough to encompass the depth of their relationship. It feels off balance, and Penelope swallows down the emotion lining her throat. There’s a moment of heaviness, saturating the air between them in the car, until the CD picks up and Britney Spears begins to blast from the speakers.

“Oh, starting with a classic I see,” Schneider says, adjusting the volume, his lips pulling up into a grin. “I once danced to this song on a bar top.”

Penelope shakes her head, chuckling, and puts the car in reverse, looking over her shoulder as she backs out of the space.

_Let the adventure begin_ , she thinks, allowing herself another lingering glance in Schneider’s direction before she focuses on the road she pulls out into, following the blue line on the screen of her phone pointing them home.


	2. two headlights shine through the sleepless night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You know I hate driving in the rain.”
> 
> “Then let me drive,” he suggests, and she lifts an eyebrow. “Isn’t part of the road trip experience supposed to be actual driving?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the wonderful and kind response to the first chapter- I really wasn't expecting it! This chapter is shorter by design because there are Big Things coming soon, but unfortunately I can't promise a super quick update because real life is, well, hectic. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please let me know what you think! Chapter title is from Treacherous by Taylor Swift.

“No more I Spy the rest of this trip. New rule.”

Penelope’s grip adjusts on the steering wheel, gritting her teeth as she drives around yet _another_ slow driver. Schneider starts to fiddle with the radio, trying to find a station.

“You know, it’s only been an hour,” he points out, unhelpfully, and Penelope breathes slowly out through her nose.

“I am well aware, Schneider. Seventeen more to go,” she says, just as a low rumble sounds off to their left. She looks up at the dark clouds that seem to have appeared from thin air, gathering with gusto, and groans. “Rain? Seriously?! What did I ever do to you, weather system?”

Schneider chuckles under his breath, and Penelope shoots him a glare.

“You know I hate driving in the rain.”

“Then let me drive,” he suggests, and she lifts an eyebrow. “Isn’t part of the road trip experience supposed to be actual driving?”

She purses her lips, but can’t argue- there’s a sign for a rest stop a quarter of a mile ahead, so she gets into the right lane, and pulls off into the small parking lot. It feels good to stretch- even just the seventy minutes in the car has her shoulder acting up, and she’s looking forward pushing the passenger seat back and relaxing for a bit.

Her eyes stray over to the other side of the car- Schneider has his arms lifted over his head, revealing a stripe of the pale skin of his abdomen. Penelope swallows at the dark hair she can see that disappears into his jeans, and nearly wrenches her neck looking away as heat floods to her cheeks. She coughs, shaking her head, and rounds the car to open the passenger side.

“You want anything? I’m gonna get a new coffee before this leg,” Schneider opens the driver side and peeks his head in- when she shakes her head, he closes it and jogs off towards the small convenience building.

 _It’s **Schneider**_ , she scolds herself, popping the tab on a can of soda and taking a gulp. The bubbles tickle her throat, and she settles further back in the seat as she waits for him to return. She’s changing the CD when the first drops hit the windshield, and it’s downright pouring when she spies Schneider exiting the front doors, two cups in a to go container in his hands.

He sprints to the car, but he’s still soaking wet when he climbs into the driver seat; he flips his hair out of his face, the dark strands even more silver-tinged where they stick to his skin.

“You know I am all about letting new baristas do their thing, more power to them, but man- if she’d been just a _little_ quicker I’d have missed the downpour,” Schneider laments, moving the two cups to the holders in the car. “I got you a hot chocolate, just in case.”

Penelope softens, reaching over to squeeze his bicep gently, his skin warm under the cool dampness of the rain.

“Thank you,” she tells him, picking the hot cup up to warm her hands. “You’re sure you’re okay to drive in this?”

“I got this, girlfriend,” he tells her, attempting to wink but merely blinking water into his eyes. Penelope hides her giggle in her hand, shaking her head fondly as she repeats her mental thought back to herself, tone just a little different.

_Yeah. It’s Schneider._

* * *

 

“Pen, I don’t think this is going to let up any time soon,” Schneider tells her after they’ve been driving for about two hours. It had been a glacial pace- the traffic had gotten a little heavier, and the rain was still falling thickly, making visibility difficult. It seemed like they were barely moving, and Penelope sighs.

“Yeah,” she replies, resigned, and he reaches over to squeeze her hand gently. “Let me call Alex and Mami- we’ll have to find a hotel for the night, it’s useless to keep this up.”

Schneider nods, and retracts his hand as she pulls her phone out, scrolling until she found her son’s name and pressed.

“Hey, honey,” she says once the other end picks up, and Schneider can’t help the smile his lips crook up into as he listens. “Everything’s fine, I promise- the weather’s just gotten pretty bad, so we won’t be home when we thought.”

He can hear the buzz of Alex speaking, but can’t distinguish the words, there’s some Spanish exchanged that’s too fast for him to translate, and the voice on the other end is decidedly feminine this time, so he determines Lydia must have taken the phone.

“Mami-” Penelope’s voice is exasperated, but she can’t get another word in before the other end floods her with more words. “It’s just a few more nights. You and Alex have food- and I know Dr. B won’t let you starve.”

Then she grins, and looks over at him, and he lifts an eyebrow in question. “Yes, Mom, I’ll make sure Schneider eats too.”

He preens, adjusting an imaginary bowtie, and makes Penelope roll her eyes once more.

“We’ll call you when we’re on the road again. Love you.”

She hangs up the phone, placing it back in the center console, and takes a deep breath. Schneider watches her out of the corner of his eye, merging lanes when he sees a sign for a hotel.

“They’re gonna be fine. I’ll get you back to them as soon as possible,” he promises, and she turns her head to look at him, smile small but soft.

“I know. Just makes me realize how grown up both my kids are. They don’t really need me as much,” she shrugs, looking out into the rain as Schneider takes the next exit, following the signs posted for the hotel.

“They’re always gonna need you, Pen,” he tells her, and one half of his mouth quirks up as the next words flow out of his mouth before he can stop himself. “They aren’t the only ones.”

He’s saved from her response by the sight of the Holiday Inn before them- Penelope starts to dig through her hotel vouchers, and he parks under the arch so they’re out of the rain as she runs inside to muscle a nice room out of them.

He’s trying to clean out the garbage they’ve managed to accumulate in less than five hours when Penelope returns, nearly slamming the car door. Schneider lifts an eyebrow, waiting for her to speak.

“The voucher only works for one room,” she spits out through gritted teeth, and his eyebrows rise higher. “With a full bed. But hey- we get a complimentary breakfast!”

“What about-”

“Fresh out of cots, too,” she cuts him off, knowing his next question, and Schneider swallows heavily.

“I’ve slept on worse floors,” he offers, and Penelope is instantly shaking her head.

“Not with your back, you can’t,” she shoots him down, and sighs heavily. “Looks like we’re bedmates for the night.”

The smile she gives him is forced at best, and he parks the car with a heavy feeling in his chest and resigned to a night with no sleep ahead of him.


End file.
